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American Democracy Can Do Better

It shames me to write this, but I’m a registered Democrat. It’s not because I believe that the party is anything close to highly-compatible with me in terms of the issues I care about—obviously not. In the current winner-takes-all, first-past-the-post system of elections we have in the United States, voting for a third party is essentially throwing one’s vote away.

Now, I know what many might say: that voting your conscience is never a waste, and that picking a third party makes a statement to the dominant two that they need to shape up or else be punished. Emotionally, I can agree with former argument, even if it screws you when it comes to having the policies you support implemented ever. The latter is just garbage (much like Scott Adams). The system is simply arranged in such a way that makes it virtually impossible for smaller parties to compete, and, when it comes to achieving a representation of a real diversity of views in the major parties, no amount of pamphlets, no number of principled stands, no intensity of Netroots Nation gatherings can bring the change so many Americans really want. That sucks.

How can we make it suck less, though? Obviously, fighting Citizens United and implementing a whole lot of public financing of elections would be steps in the right direction, but today I’m going to talk about voting. I don’t think that Americans in general, much less the minority of them that vote in anything beyond presidential elections, give sufficient thought to the absurd ways that we go about exercising our democratic rights. I mean, the electoral college? Candidates winning elections without actually winning the majority of votes? Are you kidding me?

Without the reform of our electoral system on a fundamental level, little (if any) positive change will ever come--or be forced-- out of the country’s political class. This is true whatever your personal beliefs might be, as that class is composed of the wrong people-- gutless centrists, independently wealthy plutocrats, and the terminally useless. Want great universal health care and unlimited funding for Amtrak? Nope. Want a return to the gold standard and the mass deportation of EPA employees? Again: nope. Not gonna happen-- there’s simply too much weight keeping us firmly in the camp of the status quo. Would you like this stuff (well, not that EPA thing) to be at least discussed seriously? Unlikely-- most politicians can be elected while effectively avoiding a whole host of issues that are important to their constituents.

What’s the solution, or, at the very least, what’s the way to make things suck less, then? Let voters choose the candidates they really want in office in a way that makes a lick of sense: eliminate the winner-takes-all system, and replace it with something fair like instant runoff or even Condorcet method voting. For a political party to be dominant under such a system, it would need to truly scrap for members-- not just position itself vaguely to the left or right of some arbitrary center and then go about its business of keeping the wealthy and powerful very wealthy and very powerful, all the while collecting votes from people fearful of those on the other side. Instant runoff (IRV) voting keeps incumbent parties on their toes; it allows for new ideas and parties to have a shot at the big time, rather than burying them in nonsense about remaining competitive in the face of shadowy, monstrous, monolithic opposition. Combined with proportional representation, we might even see some real alliance-making and bridge-building-- imagine a Democratic-Green-Rockefeller Republican coalition getting together to do something serious and constructive with health care reform. Doesn’t that all sound nice? Why can’t we have it?

Really, there’s nothing stopping us from busting open our two-party system like the bloated piñata it is-- except you. This applies to everyone from the dedicated activist to the lowliest of couch potatoes: you’re not going to get any meaningful change unless you fight for it, and all of that fighting is going to be futile unless it’s done in the right way. If you’re already active in politics, especially if you’re a single-issue sort of person, considering devoting some of your time and experience to voting reform efforts-- FairVote is one organization out of many. If you’re more the couch potato type, I’m sorry, but this requires a little movement: get off of the couch and do what the active people do: rally, write, and otherwise make a ruckus. Don’t be satisfied with simply rooting for politicians you like-- even the good ones will be either destroyed or assimilated into the current machine.

We really do get the government we deserve. If you truly enjoy how things are done, more power to you, but I think you’re wrong. I think a lot of people share my opinion, too, and I want to make sure that our voices count just as much as yours.

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